Shrimp Farming Environmental Problems

During the past decades of shrimp farming, one of the major aquaculture industry, especially in Asia and South America region and it is projected to be one of the leading aquaculture in the world's future that has a very large domestic and foreign market demand. Shrimp farming environmental problems have been created in all farming locations resulting from the following factors:

-Intensive aquaculture shrimp farming management, a very high stock density within the ponds, up from 300,000 to 2,000,000 pieces of post larvae per hectare (30-200 pieces / sqm) could produce several tons of organic wastes within one crop. When organic wastes accumulated within shrimp ponds environment, much organic wastes materials in their bodies are in the form of organic wastes compounds and those organic wastes can not be utilize by the phytoplankton through photosynthesis. These organic wastes compounds are quite stable, and does not have a tendency to break into simpler utilisable forms. Oxidation of these organic wastes compounds depletes the dissolved oxygen deep in the bottom soils, and formation of toxic metabolites such as hydrogen sulfide, methane, ammonia, and nitrite, thus contributing greatly to the mortality rates.

-Availability of leftover feed and phytoplankton dead cells created the accumulation of undesirable organic wastes and toxic gases dissolved in the shrimp pond bottom soils and in most cases, mortality occurs when the aquaculture shrimp ponds bottom is polluted and deteriorated. When this occurs, shrimp ponds soil become acidic, zoothamnium, damages gills (black or brown gills), burned and broken tails, affected metabolism, incidence of blue shrimp syndrome (due to nutritional deficiency), molting process is disrupted (soft shell), and the onset of fouling, white feces, vibriosis and other virus diseases occurs, thereby causing mortality.

-The congested number of shrimp farming located in the same area of non-irrigation causes the easily eradicated disease problems, and became uncontrollable factors. The idea of culturing in a restricted environment and hoping for a good harvest has been one of man's endeavor since early days. However, the ecosystem existent in aquaculture shrimp farming all over the world experiences the most recurrent problem…is how to get rid of the organic matters that has accumulated during the culture cycle and how to improve the natural water resources before starting the new cycle. This problem have been approached by designing different types of ponds waste drains within the ponds system itself, filtration, aerators, air supplies, oxidation ponds or recirculating ponds systems, yet no solution has yet been satisfactory today to correct the shrimp farming problem.